130 THE RAY, DALE, AND ALLEN COMMEMORATION FUND.
which many eminent men and various scientific societies (in-
cluding the Linnean Society in 1844 and the Essex Field Club
in 1885, 1898, and 1912) have made pilgrimages. The accom-
panying portrait (Plate xiii.) is from that formerly in the British
Museum, but now in the National Portrait Gallery.3
Samuel Dale (1659-1739), though a younger man and of less
eminence, was widely known in his day as a naturalist,
more especially as a botanist. He settled as a young man at
Braintree, where, for the rest of his life, he carried on his
profession as an apothecary. He was a close friend and
follower of Ray, who appointed him his executor ; a prominent
member of "The Company of Twenty-four" (the governing
body of the town for several centuries) ; one of the founders (in
1707) and first deacons of the Independent Chapel at Bocking ;
author of Pharmacologia (three editions, 1693, 1710, and 1737),
of the History and Antiquities of Harwich and Dovercourt
(1730), and of many articles published in the Philosophical
Transactions. A portrait of him is given hereafter.
Dr. Benjamin Allen (1663-1738), the youngest and least
renowned of the trio, was an excellent naturalist and a skilled
physician. He settled early in life at Braintree, where he prac-
tised till his death nearly fifty years later, living in what is
known as "The Great House." He was author of The Natural
History of the Chalybeate and Purging Waters of England (1699),
the earliest systematic treatise on the subject, of The Natural
History of the Mineral Waters of Great Britain (1711), and of
several papers in the Philosophical Transactions. His manu-
script "Common-Place Book," in which he entered a vast
number of observations on natural history, medicine, and other
subjects, has been described by me in the articles above men-
tioned. He was buried at Black Notley, with which parish he
seems to have had some family connection. No portrait of him
is known.
It seemed to me that, in view of the eminence of these three
men in Natural Science, the dilapidated condition of the tombs
3 The portrait (No. 563) measures 291/4 by 241/4 inches, and is ascribed conjecturally to Mrs.
Mary Beale. It has been engraved several times—among others, by W. Hole, in 1799, and by
J. Roffe, in 1820. There exists also, at Trinity College, Cambridge, another portrait of Ray,
by W. Faithorne (as well as a fine bust by Roubilliac). and this also has been engraved several
times—by W. Elder, in 1694, by A. de Blois, about the same date, by G. Vertue, in 1713. by
W. Hibbert, in 1760, and by an unnamed hand, as a vignette on the dinner ticket of the Ray
Commemoration held on the 20th November 1828. I have not seen this latter portrait ; but,
judging from the engravings of it, it is far less pleasing than the foregoing Neither portrait
has ever before been reproduced photographically so far as I have been able to ascertain.